Srila Prabhupāda Visits Mauritius

A recent tour of Africa took His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada through East and South Africa, and to the island state of Mauritius, six hundred miles off the coast of Madagascar. There he spoke with many people, among them Mr. Khemraj Gungah, president of the Narmadesvara Sivalaya temple in Rose Bell, and Mr. Gautum Teelock, ex-Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture. Contrasting ancient Vedic culture with modern civilization, His Divine Grace noted:

"Vedic society is based on the principle of love-between husband and wife, father and son, the king and the citizens, and so on. Civilization must be founded on love, not law. By law you cannot make a person love you. First he must love you, then he will gladly follow your law.

"Modern civilization lacks this basis of love, so everything is superficial and false. But if devotion to Krsna [God] is made the basic principle, then people will be happy."

Knowing of local plans to reorganize social and political structures, Srila Prabhupada then proposed that an ideal state based on the instructions of Bhagavad-gita be set up in Mauritius. "People will be very inclined to it," he said. "In a big state-especially a highly industrialized one-it would not be possible, but in a small state like Mauritius you can make it happen. You wouldn't be making a new experiment. This experiment has already been made and proven successful. In Vedic days, people lived strictly according to the principles summarized by Krsna in the Bhagavad-gita. They made the test and proved that the principles are true. So you just have to follow what is already there. You simply have to accept the Vedic authority."